Why You Should Avoid Aspartame

Aspartame, more popularly known by the brand names Equal and NutraSweet, is one of the first artificial sweeteners.

At first glance, artificial sweeteners may seem like a heaven sent for diabetics, dieters and the health conscious because artificially-sweetened products are marketed as low calorie and sugar-free.

More than 6,000 products containing aspartame, including soda, gum, desserts, chewable vitamins, gelatin and tabletop sweeteners, are sold in over 100 countries and consumed by over 250 million people around the world.

Did you know, however, that aspartame may actually cause weight gain instead of helping promote weight loss? Aspartic acid and phenylaline – the two main ingredients of aspartame – stimulate the production of insulin and leptin, which signals your body to store fat.

But weight gain would not sound bothersome compared to the other possible side effects that come with aspartame consumption. Aspartame accounts for more reports of adverse reactions than all other foods and food additives combined.

Aspartic acid and phenylaline are amino acids, which, when broken down by your body into their free forms, produce neurotoxic effects such as dizziness, headaches, mental confusion, migraines and seizures.

The aspartame you consume, from a can of diet soda for instance, will ultimately be fully absorbed by your body. Ten percent of aspartame’s metabolic product, methanol, can spontaneously break down into the carcinogenic chemical formaldehyde, which is associated with an increase risk of breast and prostate cancer.

Also, data from the National Cancer Institute showed that there was a 10 percent increase in malignant brain cancer in 1985 – two years after aspartame-sweetened diet beverages hit the market.

Young women who drink large quantities of aspartame-based diet drinks have been found to be at risk of developing alioblastoma, astrocytoma and primary lymphoma – three specific types of brain cancer.

There is also evidence that women of childbearing age who consumed aspartame during their pregnancies were delivering babies with an increased risk of brain and spinal cord cancer.

These are the reasons why aspartame and other artificial sweeteners have no place in Dr. Joseph Mercola’s weight loss program, the no-grain diet.

If you’re fond of consuming products laced with artificial sweeteners, this could probably be traced to your cravings for sweet foods and beverages.

The no-grain diet will help you kick the grain and sugar habit which has been causing the ups and downs of your weight management issues without having to resort to artificial sweeteners.

Cravings often have emotional components which also need to be addressed. Dr. Mercola recommends the Meridian Tapping Technique (MTT), also known as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), for this purpose.

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